Walking On WaterSample

Anxiety  

Involving someone else in my healing was never easy, because firstly, it brought up painful and panicky emotions; and, secondly, I didn't want to make a big deal out of it anyway. I wasn't sure that I was truly important enough to bother someone else with, but that false belief in itself is an effect of guilt and shame. Living as a prisoner of guilt has many effects: some spiritual, some emotional, some mental and some physical. They won't be exactly the same for everyone, but there will be similarities. 

One of the tell-tale signs that you struggle with guilt is if you feel like you're going to be found out as if you've done something wrong, when you haven't. This may sound like a trivial thing, but it is symptomatic. Anxiety sets your body on edge and it reacts in ways that are not healthy: acid in your stomach, tension in your muscles leading to neck, back and, especially in my case, headaches. Meditating on Psalm 37 has really helped me to take control of anxiety, as it says repeatedly, “Do not fret...” (verses 1, 7, 8).  “Fretting”, to me, means anxiety. It really spells it out in verse 8 when it says, “Do not fret, it only leads to evil.” Evil is not just the big obvious acts of darkness, it's also the smaller, insidious ones, like being physically unwell due to stress. If you're in a complete place of trust and security in God, you won't be experiencing anxiety, worry and stress and your body will be at peace with itself.

Another effect of struggling with guilt is constantly apologising. People with guilt issues will continually be saying sorry, even when they haven't done anything wrong, because they feel at some deep level that everything is somehow their fault. This can even be on a worldwide level: feeling responsible for the problems people live with, things like war, famine, poverty. God has had to teach me that he does not hold me personally accountable for all the world's troubles, and really it's rather arrogant of me to think I have that much influence! He will only hold me accountable for the things he has asked me to do, but he does not expect me to fix everything. 

Because of these symptoms though, we fail to do the one thing that God always asks of us. We fail to obey when he calls. We’d rather hide than accept responsibility. And that’s a problem.